[Gay] Gay News from Around the Gay World That is Gay

[Syt]

http://www.voanews.com/content/egyptian-reporter-aids-in-police-crackdown-on-gays/2556485.html

Egyptian Reporter Aids in Police Crackdown on Gays

For a while after the Arab Spring, it looked like gay Egyptians were finally feeling safe enough to step out of the closet.

But now, they're being forced back underground as a result of an escalating police crackdown – one that activists say is being encouraged by pro-government media.

Cairo police stormed a  bath house this week after receiving a tip from an investigative journalist. They arrested at least two dozen men for "debauchery."

Journalist Mona Iraqi and her film crew accompanied police on the raid as part of an upcoming television exposé on "perversion" and the "spread of HIV/AIDS."

On her Facebook page, she promised that her show, El Mestakhabi ["The Hidden"], would reveal Cairo's "biggest gay orgy den" and include recorded "confessions" about the "group sex trade."

She also posted still photographs of the men being loaded into police vans, wearing only bath towels and handcuffs.  She later removed the photographs, but not before they managed to circulate across social media.

"Allah," she also posted, "success is sweet."  That post has also been removed.

It didn't take long for the news of the police operation to get out.

"We heard about it Sunday night around midnight," said gay rights activist Scott Long, who lives in Cairo and blogged about the incident the following morning.

"What was most striking to me was that she [Iraqi] was absolutely unashamed about her collusion with security forces in brutalizing these men. For her, it was a point of pride."

'Like being an outlaw'

These were just the latest arrests in what activists say is a heightening crackdown on lesbian, gay and transgender people that began a year ago.

In September, police arrested eight men who had appeared in a gay wedding video posted on YouTube (below).  They were sentenced to three years in prison each.  Last April, four men were sentenced to eight years in prison for hosting "deviant" sex parties.

In recent years, activists say, social and religious stigma against homosexuality appeared to be lifting, and this encouraged then-20-year-old Ramy Youseff to come out of the closet on Twitter.

But, things began turning backward after the army led by general Abdel Fattah el-Sissi ousted Egypt's first freely elected civilian president Mohamed Morsi of the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood last year.

"Today, it's dangerous being gay in Egypt," said Youseff, who is today a prominent LGBT activist.  "It's like being an outlaw."

Since Sissi came to power, activists say as many as 148 homosexuals have been arrested.  Many are subjected to humiliating "medical tests" to prove their sexual orientation.

Same-sex relations aren't against the law in Egypt, but police have routinely invoked anti-prostitution laws to target the gay community.

Courts have also charged gay Egyptians with "scorning religion" and "sexual practices contrary to Islam."

"Debauchery" carries a sentence of from one to three years in prison.

"They sometimes tack on additional charges," Youseff said. "They may add 'sex worker' to the charges.  Or if [the person being arrested] owns a flat or is renting an apartment, they might also add 'running a house of prostitution' to the charges.  And if he is arrested in the street, they might charge him with trying to get other people on the street to commit 'debauchery' as well."

All this means that the final prison sentence could really add up.

Boost to police image

"One of the things I think is happening is after the military coup, the el-Sissi regime felt it needed to show its moral credentials because it had overthrown an Islamist government," said Long.

Targeting the gay community is an easy way for the government to do so, he said.

"Moreover, it's a very easy way for the government to reestablish the credibility of the police, because the police were widely hated after the revolution for their complicity in human rights abuses," Long said.

He also blames media for feeding anti-gay hysteria. In a recent post on his "A Paper Bird" blog, Long cites a sensational web story that included a "map of the most popular places for perverts to go in Egypt."

"Media in Egypt these days is totally under the control of the Junta," said journalist and political activist Wael Abbas in an emailed statement.  "It welcomes stories like these to enhance its image as a keeper of morality in the society."

In addition, says Abbas, stories like these help the Sissi government divert attention from the economic challenges facing Egypt's citizens.

Graeme Reid, director of Human Rights Watch's LGBT Rights Program, recently blogged that police vice squads alert the media ahead of "dramatic raids."

But critics say in the case of the bath house raid, it was the show host who alerted police.

In her own defense

Iraqi believes that she is being judged unfairly, especially considering that critics haven't seen the entire story.

"The second part is the most important part," she said. "That shows all the evidence that this [bath house] is a place for the public sex trade."

She says the first segment of Iraqi's report aired this week.  The second and third parts will air December 17 and December 24, respectively.

"For sure, I will prove that I didn't hurt anyone," she said.

She said she is certain that after the public has seen the final episode, they will understand that she is "on the right side."

"I am confident one thousand percent that they [critics] will apologize to me," she said.

The cast and crew of the El Mestakhabi issued a statement earlier this week defending their work on the series, saying they have "worked towards achieving the highest degree of accuracy and professionalism in observing international professional, humane and scientific rules."

Iraqi said they are currently working on translating and/or dubbing the episodes into English for the benefit of international audiences.

The U.S. has not commented on the bath house arrests, but has in the past called on countries to respect the rights of all people, including gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals, to "lead productive and dignified lives, free from fear, discrimination and violence."

Following the arrests, a State Department spokesperson told Think Progress it will continue to stress the importance of those rights to the Egyptian government.

[Eddie Teach]

"What was most striking to me was that she [Iraqi] was absolutely unashamed about her collusion with security forces in brutalizing these men. For her, it was a point of pride."

Yeah, never mind that bureaucrats ordered the raids and cops participated in them, the salient fact is that they got a journalist to go along with it. 

[The Brain]

But she had reporter AIDS.

[Syt]

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/violence-against-lgbts-getting-worse-in-russia-study-says/513341.html

Violence Against LGBTs Getting Worse in Russia, Study Says

Russia's controversial law against gay propaganda has become a "license to harm" for Russian homophobes, who have expanded to target closeted gays, a new study says.

"License to Harm" is the title of a new report on gay rights in Russia, which was presented by Human Rights Watch in Moscow on Monday.

The study examined 78 cases of attacks on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people across 16 cities in Russia since 2012. The list includes verbal harassment and rights violations such as firings over sexual orientation, but physical violence dominated.

The abuse detailed in the report went beyond beatings: Documented cases include a gay person who was forced to sodomize himself with a bottle by homophobic attackers, and a gay woman who was stripped naked and abandoned in a forest — after her big toenails were torn out with pliers.

Most victims said anti-gay violence had intensified since the law against "gay propaganda" was passed in 2013.

Formally, the law is limited to minors, with anyone found guilty of informing them that LGBT relations are "of equal social worth with traditional relations" facing fines.

Yet, homophobes across the nation have taken it as carte blanche to conduct a hate campaign, Human Rights Watch representatives said at the study's presentation in Moscow.

"Pressure increased on LGBT [people] and defenders of their rights," said the group's Russia researcher, Tanya Cooper. "It's a campaign of harassment and intimidation."

There are no comprehensive statistics for the number of LGBT people in Russia, a country of 146 million, or for attacks on them nationwide.

A study by anti-xenophobia watchdog Sova listed 27 attacks over last year, but that figure was based solely on media reports.

A polling of experts and LGBT representatives showed that the attacks had changed in nature in the 18 months since the law's passing, the study said.

Before the law, homophobes focused on open activists staging or attending LGBT festivals or gay pride rallies, said Ksenia Kirichenko of Vykhod ("Coming Out"), a group providing legal aid to LGBT people.

But now they also target people who try to keep their sexual identity hidden, Kirichenko told The Moscow Times at the study's presentation.

A case in point was the firing of a closeted lesbian teacher in a school for disabled children in St. Petersburg earlier this month. The woman was forcibly outed by an anti-gay activist and promptly fired for "moral misconduct," the first such case in Russia.

The attackers include both Christian conservatives and poor working-class teenagers who are more interested in violence than ideology, Kirichenko said.

The latter are prominent in the Occupy Pedophilia movement, a vigilante group whose activists have documented on video hundreds of instances of brutal abuse against alleged gays and child abusers throughout Russia.

Authorities, meanwhile, have gone out of their way to downplay any spike in violence against LGBT people.

Prosecutors and security services refuse to track statistics for homophobic attacks or register them as hate crimes, Cooper said.

The bill's backers, all the way up to President Vladimir Putin, have repeatedly denied that it is discriminatory, saying it is aimed only at "protecting Russian children."

The Kremlin has embraced ultraconservative rhetoric since 2012 in a bid to rally supporters in the face of mounting political dissent and, more recently, an economic crisis.

The Prosecutor General's Office and the Investigative Committee did not return separate requests for comment Monday.

But Russia's gay basher par excellence, St. Petersburg lawmaker Vitaly Milonov, was unfazed.

"If Human Rights Watch is against the law, that means we must keep it," Milonov told The Moscow Times.

The conservative lawmaker, who pioneered the "anti-gay law," accused the New York-headquartered watchdog of being a "political call girl."

Milonov — who just last weekend crashed a hedonist party in a St. Petersburg gay club (disrupting, but failing to cancel it) — also denied any increase in homophobic attacks.

"Oh please," he said by telephone. "I can't shut down a single fa--ot club, and they're everywhere on TV."

"I wish I were 'oppressed' like they are," Milonov said.

[Martinus]

Russia is possibly the shittiest, most evil "European" country at the moment.

[Eddie Teach]

Russia is possibly the shittiest, most evil "European" country at the moment.

Other than the third reich, I'm hard-pressed to think of a moment when that wasn't the case.

[Martinus]

Fair enough.

As a Pole; as a gay person; as a member of Western civilisation, I can't wait for Russia to crash and burn.

[Valmy]

Russia is possibly the shittiest, most evil "European" country at the moment.

Other than the third reich, I'm hard-pressed to think of a moment when that wasn't the case.

Well there was Serbia during the 90s.

[Martinus]

Study: Gay men earn less than straight men, but lesbians are paid more

Sexual orientation seems to affect earning prospects and job satisfaction, a study shows.

Research by Nick Drydakis at Anglia Ruskin University found gay men on average earn 9% less compared to heterosexual men.

However, lesbians on average earn 12% more compared to heterosexual women.

Even in countries in the EU, Australia, Canada and the US, which have the strongest anti-discrimination laws, gay and lesbian people experienced more obstacles in getting a job, earning bias and harassment than their counterparts.

Mr Drydakis said: "Despite anti-discrimination laws in some countries, gay and lesbian employees encounter serious job-market barriers.

"They report more harassment and less job satisfaction than heterosexual employees, and gay men earn less than comparably skilled and experienced heterosexual men.

"Good employer–employee relations are shown to increase job satisfaction for gay and lesbian employees.

"Government can help through campaigns promoting respect and equality of treatment in the workplace and by publishing annual data on progress toward equality objectives.

"Firms should evaluate recruitment and promotion policies to ensure equality of opportunity and should address incidents of harassment."

The report highlights that fewer than 20% of countries have adopted sexual orientation anti-discrimination laws in employment, and 2.7 billion people live in countries where being gay or lesbian is a crime.

It found that people who are open about their sexual orientation within the workplace are more likely to report higher job satisfaction than those who are not.

In the UK, lesbians earned 8% more than heterosexual women, with the gap increasing to 11% in Germany and 20% in the US.

My personal take on this:

1. Discrimination plays a role, but...

2. Gay men are more likely to pick jobs that are better on work-life balance / are less likely to put in extra hours even if they pay less than straight men, because more rarely have an entire family to maintain.

3. Gay women are paid more than straight women because they are less likely to have kids (which is a significant reason why women are paid less on average).

Incidentally:

"Good employer–employee relations are shown to increase job satisfaction for gay and lesbian employees.

Shocking! Who would have thought?!

[Valmy]

Man I am glad we have studies around to tell us these things.

[Martinus]

Man I am glad we have studies around to tell us these things.

Well, there needs to be something for sociologists and gender studies' graduates to do - there just aren't enough job openings at McDonald's.

[Martinus]

US: Anti-gay pastor arrested for sexually harassing a man

Pastor Gaylard Williams of anti-gay Praise Cathedral Church of God in Indiana has been arrested for sexually harassing a man at a lake.

The victim says Williams approached him while he sat in his car, squeezed his genitals and asked him for oral sex. He said he only managed to make Williams leave by pretending to reach for a gun.

When police caught up with Williams they found gay pornography in his car. Williams claimed he was holding the pornography for a friend, and was at the lake to look for a friend who fished there.

Church of God beliefs state that homosexuality is a sin, marriage is between a man and a woman, and "We will engage in those activities which glorify God in our body and which avoid the fulfillment of the lust of the flesh."

Caleb Funke, youth director of another local church said of his neighbour: "I guess when you hear of a pastor getting caught of that, you get a little more shocked than I guess somebody else. But we're all sinners."

You couldn't make that shit up. 

[Razgovory]

US: Anti-gay pastor arrested for sexually harassing a man

Pastor Gaylard Williams of anti-gay Praise Cathedral Church of God in Indiana has been arrested for sexually harassing a man at a lake.

The victim says Williams approached him while he sat in his car, squeezed his genitals and asked him for oral sex. He said he only managed to make Williams leave by pretending to reach for a gun.

When police caught up with Williams they found gay pornography in his car. Williams claimed he was holding the pornography for a friend, and was at the lake to look for a friend who fished there.

Church of God beliefs state that homosexuality is a sin, marriage is between a man and a woman, and "We will engage in those activities which glorify God in our body and which avoid the fulfillment of the lust of the flesh."

Caleb Funke, youth director of another local church said of his neighbour: "I guess when you hear of a pastor getting caught of that, you get a little more shocked than I guess somebody else. But we're all sinners."

You couldn't make that shit up. 

Well, obviously someone did.  I don't think that victim's story and that of the pastor can both be true.

[Martinus]

Ok, grumbler.

[Martinus]

Ok, this seems like a hilariously bad idea:

Channel 4: Six percent of employees must be LGBT

Channel 4 has set tough new diversity targets, which require six percent of employees to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender by the year 2020.

The broadcaster announced its new diversity charter today – which drastically increases previous targets for representation – and introduced clauses which will strip executives of their bonus if they fail to meet targets.

The broadcaster wants 6% of staff to identify as LGBT by the year 2020 – up from 2.4% – with targets for 6% staff with disabilities and 20% black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) staff.

This figure for LGBT representation is far higher than the 2.4% of Channel 4 staff that currently identify as LGBT.

The broadcaster said the percentages reflect the proportion in the general population – however, it is unclear where the figure of 6% for LGBT came from, with the broadcaster saying it made its "own assessment" to get to the number.

Channel 4 said: "Our ambition is for employee diversity to reach the national average.

"In some categories of diversity there are differing estimates, sometimes significant, of the national average (particularly around disability and LGBT); in these areas we have made our own assessment of the national average to aim for, allowing for how this might develop over time."



The target for BAME diversity is also lower among "C4 leaders" – presumably executive staff – with a 15% target by 2020, compared to 20% for general staff.

As part of the strategy, Channel 4 exec David Abraham has doubled the diversity budget to £5 million.

The broadcaster said: "Diversity is a big, complex area.

"The aim of diversity policy in broadcasting is simple: to include and nurture talent, and to reflect contemporary Britain on and offscreen.

"But at Channel 4 we need to do more than reflect Britain. Our remit tasks us to 'challenge established views and promote alternative views and new perspectives' unlike other broadcasters.

"Many aspects of diversity are important to us including diversity of thought. But beyond that, there are many different aspects of diversity that shift over time."

It continues "Our 360° Diversity Charter means we will show leadership in diversity at every level. Leadership is about people. It's about all the people who contribute to our content, not just those on-screen.

"Our Charter involves commissioners, writers, directors, HR managers, interns, casting agents, viewers, business managers, indie managers, on-screen talent, TV executives, lawyers, headhunters, careers advisors,marketing executives, PAs, data-rights managers, production assistants... when we say 360°, we mean 360°.

"We understand that leadership and learning go hand in hand. We don't have all the answers, but we'll find solutions by educating people to be diversity-savvy; to be diversity leaders."